And then Jon had a brainstorm. What if he offered Americans the jobs at the same rate he would be paying for Indian programmers? It seemed like a long shot. But it also seemed worth the gamble. So Jon placed some ads in The Boston Globe, offering full-time contract programming work for $45,000 annually. (He had decided that it was worth adding a $5,000 premium to what he'd pay the Indian workers in exchange for having the programmers on site.)

The result? "We got flooded" with resumes, about 90 in total, many from highly qualified programmers having trouble finding work in the down economy, Jon says. His decision: "For $5,000 it was no contest." Jon went American. And the outcome? "I think I got the best of both worlds. I got local people who came in for 10% more (than Indians). And I found really good ones."

If I got $45,000 (~£26,500) for programming I'd be pretty happy. I don't know what typical American programmer salaries are (I just checked >>> $90,000), but £26,500 is about typical for someone with around 2-3yrs experience here in the UK. You'll probably find that Indian programmers take home only about $3,000 (a guess) of that $40,000 figure quoted, with the remainder going to cover the cost of having work done overseas.